Contending with falling profits and hefty debt payments, mining companies such as Glencore PLC and Vale SA this year increasingly turned for cash to specialist lenders who pay large lump sums in exchange for metal deliveries.

More firms in China are struggling to repay debt amid the worst economic slowdown in a quarter century. The number of listed companies with more debt than equity has jumped to 913 from 705 in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Three Chinese manufacturers said last week that they lack funds to repay bonds due this month.

“We show that despite the additional assistance available, individuals across the income distribution who are ineligible for Medicaid can still face very high expenditures,” authors of the report, released last week by the Urban Institute, said. “10% of marketplace enrollees with incomes between 200% and 500% of (the federal poverty level) will spend more than 21% of their income on healthcare costs.”

The plight of young workers such as Mr Tsai highlights a serious problem for Taiwan, which has gone from a young and vibrant Tiger economy to ageing and unsteady in just two generations. The working-age population is not growing fast enough, nor earning nearly enough to pay for their parents’ retirement.

The rising costs stem from an Oregon Supreme Court case, Moro v. State of Oregon. The decision said the state can't retroactively decrease pension benefits promised to employees. The Moro decision raised PERS unfunded actuarial liability costs by $5.1 billion overnight. Total unfunded liabilities are more than $18 billion, according to the most recent estimates.

All by themselves, the latest measures will add an estimated $830 billion to the deficit over the next decade. Even in Washington, that’s real money, equal to roughly 20 years of all federal spending on agriculture, for example. Roll in some of the other things Congress quietly borrowed money to pay for this year, and lawmakers have added about $1.2 trillion to the debt between now and 2025.

Wall Street’s biggest dealers are forecasting that blue chip U.S. companies will sell more than $1 trillion of bonds for a fifth straight year in 2016 as corporate America’s borrowing binge endures beyond the end of the Federal Reserve’s zero-rate monetary policy.

In December, Fitch became the second credit ratings agency to cut its Brazilian debt from investment-grade to junk status, which meant that many foreign investments funds, under their bylaws, could no longer invest in the country.

The island's government must pay about $1 billion to its creditors on January 4 to avoid defaulting for the second time since August. Even if it pays on time, Puerto Rico will still be saddled with a ton of debt -- roughly $73 billion in total, according to Moody's. The odds of Puerto Rico making the January payment aren't good.

"For some of these companies it may be crippling because instead of spending money to drill new wells, they will have to spend money to plug and abandon wells that have hit the end of their productive life," said Ed Hirs, a professor of energy economics at the University of Houston and managing director of Hillhouse Resources LLC, a Texas-based oil and gas company.

As of last week, 111 companies worldwide had defaulted on their obligations, the highest tally since 2009 when the the figure hit 242 for the same period. About 60 percent of this year's global defaults have come from U.S. borrowers, Vazza wrote, up from 55 percent a year ago, when 33 of 60 defaulters were American.

In Kern County, California, one of the nation’s biggest oil producers, tumbling energy prices have wiped more than $8 billion from its property-tax base, forcing officials to tap into reserves and cut every department’s budget. It’s only getting worse.

Hit by Western sanctions last year, VEB has stopped new lending. The cost of its bailout could reach 1.3 trillion rubles ($18 billion), according to several senior government officials, ballooning the budget deficit at a time when plunging oil prices are forcing spending cuts.

Gold & Silver

Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to [email protected]. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."